DNA proves guilt

last updated 8 January 2015

Richmond, Va.

A new round of DNA tests confirmed this week that Roger Keith Coleman, who was executed in 1992, was indeed guilty of raping and murdering his sister-in-law. Coleman’s supporters, including Pope John Paul II, believed the evidence was too weak to justify taking Coleman’s life. “An innocent man is going to be murdered tonight,” Coleman said after being strapped into the electric chair. More than 120 people have been freed from death row based on post-conviction DNA tests. But Coleman’s case was the first in which testing took place after an execution. “Stop the presses,” said Michael Paranzino of the pro–death penalty group Throw Away the Key. “It turns out that rapists and killers are also liars.”